The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

"Ironically, the United States refuses to join the more-than-75 nations that have recognized the independence of Western Sahara, originally declared back in 1976. Indeed, the Bush administration is on record supporting Morocco's call for international recognition of its unilateral annexation of Western Sahara as an 'autonomous region' of that kingdom. This double standard is particularly glaring in light of the fact that Kosovo had been legally recognized as part of Serbia whereas Western Sahara is legally recognized as a non-self-governing territory under belligerent military occupation, a status confirmed by the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice.

"The United States has rejected proposals that would allow Serbia to annex a small strip of land in the northern part of Kosovo with a predominantly ethnic Serbian population and several sites that the Serbs consider to have important historical significance. At the same time, however, the United States is on record supporting Israeli proposals to annex strips of Palestinian land on the West Bank populated by Israeli Jews and other areas considered by Israelis to be of important historical significance. Ironically, the Kosovar Serbs have mostly lived on their land for centuries while the Israelis in the West Bank are virtually all colonists occupying illegal settlements built recently and in direct defiance of international law and a series of UN Security Council resolutions."

More Comments:

Otto M. Kerner -
2/23/2008

The thing that bothers me most about the Kosovo situation is that everyone knows that the idea of this as a "unilateral" declaration of independence is a fake. It is a put-on by the U.S. Although, to you and me, this seems like a clear distinction, for most people it will tend to degrade their concept of what a "unilateral declaration" is. Similarly, some people now see the word "freedom" as suspect, since the first thing it reminds them of is the rhetoric of George W. Bush. In the case of secession, the established powers will always welcome and encourage the sense that an independence movement is necessarily the work of outside agitators -- e.g. the Chinese already believe that anyone who calls for "Tibetan independence" or even "Tibetan autonomy" is a CIA stooge.